SNEAKING UP ON US – AT 10:46 A.M. ET:  President Obama is all hot and bothered about moves in Congress to impose new threats of sanctions on Iran.  He has threatened a veto.  We must not upset the boys in Tehran while "negotiations" are ongoing.

Well, it seems the boys in Tehran didn't need the US Congress to get them upset.  All it took was their own government negotiating with the West.  Get this, from Reuters: 

BEIRUT - Iran will have no choice but to step up its uranium enrichment if a bill now moving through parliament is approved, even though it has no current need for such highly-enriched uranium, its nuclear chief said on Saturday.

The bill has received expressions of support from at least 218 of parliament's 290 members and, if passed, could threaten progress toward a resolution of Iran's long-running row with the international community over its nuclear program, on which a landmark interim agreement was struck last November.

The parliament is much more hawkish than Iran's new president Hassan Rouhani on the nuclear issue, although some see the proposal, put forward last month, as a response to a bill introduced by conservatives in the U.S. Senate that would impose new sanctions on Iran.

Iran has stockpiles of uranium enriched to 5 percent fissile purity, sufficient for nuclear power stations, and 20 percent, of great concern to major powers because it is a relatively short technical step from weapons-grade.

COMMENT:  Do you get the feeling the Iranians are laughing at us?  Why not?  Everyone else is.  Iran won a substantial victory with the interim agreement it made with the West to limit its nuclear program while a permanent agreement is negotiated.  The interim agreement does nothing to stop the Iranian nuclear program.  Now Iran's parliament may actually order an expansion of that program, and Obama is more concerned about the U.S. Congress, which clearly is worried over what we're giving away.

Most readers probably know the term "Kryptonite."  In the Superman legend it's the material which, if put near Superman, robs him of his strength.  Well, we have a President Kryptonite.  Put him near any American institution, and it's immediately weakened.  Just look at foreign policy.

January 12, 2014